Originally posted on the Synertrade blog in May, 2018.

In our last piece we discussed the topic of data harmonization and how it’s much more involved than one may think. It requires the ability to normalize, cleanse, enrich, and structure disparate, duplicate, data across a multitude of sources of various quality. And sometimes it’s not even apparent, even after mappings and enrichment, that two records actually refer to the same entity.

As you might have guessed, data harmonization is not the only struggle that is harder than one might think. Another struggle all organizations face in the back office is workflow management, and in Supply Management, this struggle is especially acute. Why? A number of reasons, including:

1. Workflow processes cross departments.

Think of just the sourcing process. Typically, a buyer is sourcing for another department. The department defines the specs, the buyer puts together a sample RFX, it goes back to the department for comment, comes back to the buyer for updates, goes back to the department for approval, gets posted. When responses to the RFI come in, the buyer evaluates price options, but the stakeholder department evaluates non-price options. Jointly defined weightings are applied and a set of suppliers are selected for an RFP. The joint process is repeated and then, in a short process, one or more suppliers are selected for an award. A contract offer is prepared, and Legal needs to be involved. And this is just simple sourcing. Source to Pay processes often cross the majority of departments in an organization.

2. Workflow processes cross organizational boundaries.

With Sourcing, and even Source-to-Pay, much of the process is internal. The only parts of the process that are external are suppliers submitting responses. But when you get to supplier development, joint product development, and other supply management controlled processes, the process is not easily contained within the four walls of the organization. In supplier development, both parties have to agree upon scorecards, issues, and development options. Then work together on creating a development plan. Both parties have to follow the plan, provide updates, report additional issues, provide resolutions, and so on. This is just one example where workflow processes clearly cross organizational boundaries.

3. Workflow processes vary by category.

It’s pretty obvious even to non-buyers that the process for buying office suppliers is different from the process for buying custom printed FPGAs from the process of acquiring temporary consulting services for the IT backbone upgrade. So, you can’t just implement a sourcing workflow and expect to follow it every time. The same goes for supplier development, product development, opportunity analysis, and other projects that Supply Management will undertake regularly.

4. There are always exceptions.

No matter what the process, there will be exceptions. For example, if a buy needs to be made above a buyer’s threshold, there will be extra approvals. If shipping needs to be expedited, not only will the carrier need to be changed along with the mode, but extra approvals will need to be involved in the process. Supplier development will be according to the issue — quality, delivery, warranty response, etc.

When one sits down and maps out all of the workflow requirements of just the daily processes, workflow management quickly becomes the unsung villain of supply management. Not only are there no well documented process maps for the majority of processes, whose descriptions, if they exist at all, are embedded within category (strategy) documents, but there is generally little to no platform support for these processes. And the more process centric a Supply Management process tries to get, the more difficult tasks become. Process, and workflow management, becomes the villain of daily life.

But with a modern Source-to-Pay platform with proper embedded workflow management, at least for day-to-day buying and supply management activities, workflow management, and the proper processes it enables, can become the unsung hero of daily life. The ability to define customized sourcing and procurement workflows, for every category,
as well as exception workflows, that capture the full strategy and business process requirements, not only eliminates the villainous hassles that workflow management can create when a system doesn’t support it, but makes it the unsung hero of a Supply Management platform, as the buyer doesn’t have to worry about trying to remember and force-fit processes, but simply has to walk through the processes laid out in the system.

So when you are looking for your next Source-to-Pay platform, be sure that the platform, or at least one component of, contains powerful workflow definition and management features that can be configured by senior buyers to support buyers and system users in their daily activities. The difference between this and the status quo will be the difference between light and day.